Leapfrogging the U.S. -Is Singapore Emerging as the World's Leading Green City?

"A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Singapore. In J.F.K.’s waiting lounge we could barely find a place to sit. Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore’s ultramodern airport, with free Internet portals and children’s play zones throughout. We felt, as we have before, like we had just flown from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II."

There are the words of New York Times pundit, Thomas Friedman, writing yesterday about America's decline in a world of emerging technology and science titans: India, China, Korea, Singapore. Friedman sounded the clarion call for a era of nation building -rebuilding the United States.

A glaring example of how we could invest some of that $3 trillion we've poured into the Oedipal nation-building disaster of Iraq is taking place in the technology-mecca of Singapore where a new green complex from world renowned architecture firm Foster + Partners will be adding a brilliant corridor of green to the Singapore skyline. As sustainability becomes an essential ingredient to development in this island nation, the UK-based firm is leaving no stone unturned to make good use of alternative energy sources in this 150,000 square meter mixed-use project. As the winning design from an international competition, Singapore’s new eco-complex is pushing the green envelope from top to bottom in a sophisticated downtown design.

The complex will fill an entire city block between Singapore’s Marina Center and the Civic District with commercial, residential, retail, hotels, and a ‘green’ link to an Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station. All facades will be fitted with solar cells and, to help control solar gain, direct sunlight will be filtered through ribbon-like canopies rising from the base of the entire complex to the exposed east and west elevations of the towers.

The canopies will form vertical louvers at the elevations and provide more renewable on-site energy with integrated thin-film solar arrays. Vertical green spaces, and extensive sky gardens are also important components of the towers, further greening the whole structure with natural vegetation and ambient temperature moderation.

The slanted facades are designed to catch the wind and direct it downwards for natural cooling of the ground floor spaces. A rainwater harvesting system, geothermal heating system, chilled beams and ceilings, and an ice storage system for cooling are further enhancements planned for the complex.

While it looks intensely complex, the design takes advantage of simple green building principles, including passive solar, natural ventilation and natural cooling.

Posted by Casey Kazan.

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Source link:

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/05/05/foster-partners-new-green-complex-for-singapore/

Comments

[Social Network Web Design]

Yeah, Singapore's industry is booming right now..

[Bob]

Wow one part of singapore is going green....singapore still lacks in every other area when compared to the united states, for example such as drinkable water or a reliable electric system. this article is a joke

[Horatio]

Just love those benevolent dictatorships

[Ian Macmillan]

In Singapore you can drink the water right out of the tap, and the electricity is on 24 hours a day. So Social Network Design is way out of touch